“Rey Bucanero”, Right Wing, Sniper.
Think I scored 1 goal and picked up an assist in the prospects game. Was drafted 7th (?) by the Dallas Stars. Spent most of the first half of the season on the Texas Stars (least creative team name ever, and there sure are a lot of AHL teams in Texas.)

The (18 year old) player rating started at 74, and has only moved up thru equipment bonuses. There’s no way I should’ve scored 62 goals and 82 points with a 74 guy. Need to bump up difficulty (at Pro now) …may wait until after playoffs

Ended regular season with 4th most points and 1st in goals on Dallas, despite playing 40 less games. Not coincidentally, took twice as many shots than anyone else, again despite playing 40 fewer games. I’m a black hole and would need to fix this if I ever played a team game online.

Not coincidentally, the only Season Expectation I missed was assists (supposed to have gotten 28)

Something between 15-20 of those goals were empty net goals at end of the games.

Led the NHL in goals by rookie, but finished 17 points out of first place

When promoted to Dallas on a permanent basis, they were around 13th in Western Conference. They’ll go into the playoffs as the #1 seed. Again, difficulty needs to be slightly adjusted…

Still can’t make a shootout goal to save my life. At least that’s not a big deal in the playoffs!

If Xavier Nady’s 2010 is 85% of Xavier Nady’s 2008, it gives the Cubs a much improved backup at the corner outfield positions and first base. It pushes Micah Hoffpauir off the team, but Micah had really pushed himself off the team with his 2009 struggles.

The concerns are

everyone’s been very careful to say Nady MAY be ready to start the season, and may not be.

The 25 point jump in OBP would be great if he could sustain it, but a good portion of that seems to be BABIP increases that aren’t likely to be kept. And the big leap in power is a bit amazing and probably not going to stay that way.

It’s a bit of a risk/reward play, but this team needs to take some risks and have them work out if they’re going to be competitive this year. If he doesn’t come all the way back, he’s either an average backup outfielder or someone who can easily be pushed aside for a Colvin or Hoffpauir or someone else. If Nady can hit like 2008, the Cubs have a great option for when the starting outfielders inevitably go cold.

Signing Nady officially ended Reed Johnson’s time with the Cubs. It’s no surprise, and seemed to be headed that way at the end of the season. His teammates all love him, but he’s 33 and breaking down physically. Aside the foot injury that kept him out most of has last season, he’s got back issues and all sorts of other minor issues from a career of running out every ball and getting hit by many pitches. Reed can still hit lefties if he’s healthy, but the Cubs were hampered by too many people being question marks each day (Milton being gone helps here) and they have a lot of younger/cheaper options.

Reed will probably be okay for the Dodgers; he’ll be able to handle the pinch hitting/defensive replacement/occasional starter role. He probably just isn’t a good bet for the 300 PA spot that Nady’s filling for the Cubs.

Still wish the Cubs would get an actual backup option for 3rd (or a better option for 2B, but that seems unlikely.) It does sound like they’re out of money and will have to get lucky on an NRI panning out, so this team is pretty much set: